Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce retailer with about 80 per cent of the total market, says it took only until 1:04pm today to sell Rmb19.1bn ($3.1bn) worth of goods, equivalent to everything it sold last year – and about twice what was sold last year on Cyber Monday in the US, the Monday after Thanksgiving.

The once-a-year Singles Day in China is becoming a big event for both online shoppers and retailers, with some of the bigger sites such as those run by Alibaba offering 50 per cent off and seeing growth in sales explode.

The alternative to Valentine’s Day, which was started among Chinese college students and held on November 11 (as a numerical pun of four single digits) has now become mainstream – and very big. It is also causing something of a challenge for couriers and delivery companies in the mad rush. Read more

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